10 March, 1917.] Teachers' Farm School. 137 



School, in supporting the toast, expressed the satisfaction of the students 

 with the course of Agriculture at the Farm School. He was sure the 

 experience would react beneficially on the agriculture of the State. 

 He enlarged on the teachers' responsibility and influence on the grown- 

 up community per medium of the children. Mr. Hilton, a teacher 

 hailing from South Australia, who came over at the instance of the 

 South Australian Department of Education to report on the school, 

 spoke enthusiastically of the instruction he had received. He com- 

 mended to their notice the Agricultural Bureaus of South Australia. 



Mr. Lawson, Minister of Education, was cheered as he rose to re- 

 spond. After thanking the teachers for their expression of good-will 

 he intimated his belief that teachers, especially men who are so enthusi- 

 astic as to give up a week of their holidays to the study of agriculture, 

 were capable of doing a vast ajnount of good for the farming interest. 

 Public appreciation of agricultural education must be awakened, but, 

 unfortunately, the Government, faced with the stern need for economy, 

 proposed to close one or two of the farms at High Schools. This might 

 seem a retrograde step, but possibly appreciation might be aroused if 

 they were being taken away. It was heartening to notice that over 

 700 primary schools were giving attention to agricultural subjects. He 

 laid stress on the important work the teacher could do in taking the 

 child early and giving his mind a bend towards rural pursuits. The 

 cifyward drift ot population in Australia must be stemmed. It was 

 the duty of the Government to make country life attractive and .pro- 

 fitable, and they looked confidently for the teachers' co-operation. 

 Teachers had opportunities greater than most other men to set the 

 standard of social life. Rural residence could be made more pleasant 

 by the multiplication of halls, schools, recreation reserves, parks, and 

 public gardens. Teachers should induce the farmers to co-oj>erate in 

 social matters, and so raise the standard of their life as individuals. It 

 was pleasing to see that many old prejudices were passing away, the 

 present-day farmer was not so mucli inclined to look askance at such 

 social ameliorations as the introduction of the gramophone, the piano, 

 the easy chair, and a more generous cuisine. He was delighted, on a 

 recent visit to the Winimera, to see among the farmers such evidence of 

 proSiperity and comfort, as the telephone and the motor-car, and to see 

 attention paid to the festhetic appearance of the homesteads. A 

 good teacher was a boon in a farming district, and became the 

 philosopher and friend of the community. Concerning criticism of 

 public men and public officers, all he asked was that it should be intel- 

 ligent criticism, constructive, rather than carping. In closing, he paid 

 a high tribute to the work the teachers were doing in the matter of 

 war relief, and the fine spirit they were showing in the midst of tem- 

 porary and unavoidable hardships, such as deferment of increments, and 

 the like. 



Mr. Hagelthorn, Minister for Agriculture, said that the Govern- 

 ment was deeply indebted to its fine body of school teachers. The 

 students he saw around him might reap no financial gain from the 

 course they were pursuing, but the knowledge they were acquiring would 

 undoubtedly be a gain to their districts. He had been greatly in- 

 terested in the remarks of the teacher from South Australia, and 

 thought that we, in Victoria, had a good deal to learn from the system 

 of Agricultural Bureaus in vogue there. He had also listened with 

 great pleasure to the lecture by Mr. Ricliardson, a man who had an 



